A Senior Ambulanceman of the Fire Services Department (FSD) has been charged by the ICAC today (Friday) with misconduct in public office by deactivating a mobilising system installed in ambulances and inputting false locations of those ambulances into the system on over 200 occasions so as not to take up emergency duties.

Yu Sum-fat Troson-Zab, 54, faces one count of misconduct in public office, contrary to Common Law.

The defendant will appear in the Kowloon City Magistracy next Tuesday (March 8) for mention, pending transfer of the case to the District Court for plea.

The case arose from a corruption complaint referred by the FSD. Subsequent ICAC enquiries revealed the above alleged offence of misconduct in public office.

At the material time, the defendant was a Senior Ambulanceman posted to the Lam Tin Ambulance Depot of the FSD.

The charge alleges that between September 1, 2013 and January 22, 2014, the defendant, in the course of or in relation to his public office, without reasonable excuse or justification, wilfully and intentionally misconducted himself.

The defendant is alleged to have deactivated on 204 occasions the Global Positioning System of the Third Generation Mobilising System (TGMS) installed in the ambulances he manned; and inputted manually on those occasions false locations of the ambulances into the Mobile Data Terminal of TGMS installed in the said ambulances.

It is alleged that by doing so, the defendant had misled staff members of the Fire Services Communication Centre of the FSD to believe that the ambulances manned by him together with the other ambulancemen on board were not available for emergency duties at areas close to the true locations of the said ambulances.

The FSD has rendered full assistance to the ICAC during its investigation.

The defendant has been released on ICAC bail, pending his court appearance next Tuesday.